The structure and growth of silver films condensed at oblique vapour incidence, and their dependence on the film thickness and the residual air pressure

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Abstract
Electron diffraction at grazing incidence is used to study the structure and growth of silver films condensed in vacuum at oblique incidence on glass at room temperature (at 30-35 Å s−1, where the vapour was normal to the substrate). The crystal orientations at the film surface are determined at film thicknesses H up to 6500 Å, at residual air pressures p from 7×10−6 to 7×10−3 Torr and at angles of incidence i up to 45°. The same form of relation, H=K(lgp0-lgp), is found at i=45° as at normal incidence for the film thickness H at which {111} orientation and {111} faces develop after the initial random polycrystalline film growth, and for the H at the later new stages of orientation; that is, {111}+{111} twinning and then {110} with some {211} orientation. At i=45°, all these stages of orientation begin at H about half those found when i=0. At i up to 45°, the tilt δ of the orientation axis from the substrate normal towards the vapour stream is approximately i/4, but for the later stratum of mainly {110} orientation it is about 2i/3. The form of surface roughness of the films when these orientations are being developed can be represented by the function A cos (n) d for the area of the surface elements inclined at between and +d to the plane substrate.